


The Prince and the Knight

by wynnebat



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/M, Past Character Death, Rapunzel Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 13:28:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5587732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Derek, happily ever after comes in the form of a knight at the bottom of his tower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Prince and the Knight

**Author's Note:**

> For the "fairy tale au" square of my [Teen Wolf Bingo](http://teen-wolf-bingo.tumblr.com/) card.

Once upon a time, there was a prince who'd gotten caught up in an evil witch's trap. He'd been young and foolish, and naïve in a way that sheltered princes sometimes were. His error lead to the deaths of his family and his sinister uncle taking the throne. _For his own protection,_ Peter had said, Derek had been sent far north, to a tower where he could be safe while Peter, Laura, and Cora avenged their family's deaths. He wasn't trustworthy to them, not anymore.

Years later, Derek was mostly convinced Kate's family had been dealt with, but no word had come from his own. In the back of his mind, he knew he could leave this tower. He could go back to the old Hale lands. But what if he was only turned away again?

It was on such a day, when his thoughts were at their lowest, that Derek heard his first human voice in years.

"Prince Derek!" called a woman's voice from down at the foot of Derek's tower.

Mystified, Derek came onto the balcony, and saw a knight on a fine steed. The knight was already removing her helmet, revealing long, flowing brown hair and a face flush with excretion. She had hurried here, Derek surmised, but for what purpose he could not say.

"Who are you?" he called down, for the knight's face looked familiar. Something in the shape of her jaw, her nose, something…

"My name is Allison, of the Argents," the woman replied. "I have come to return you to your kingdom."

Derek raised an eyebrow. "I'd rather you leave me up here. I'm not leaving with an Argent."

"I have a letter from Queen Laura, along with her signet ring," Allison said, holding them up. From such a height, Derek couldn't make out any details; for all he knew, it was the Argent crest stamped into the ring.

He wanted to trust her. It had been so very long since Derek had anyone to trust. But he couldn't take the chance.

"Leave me be!" he called down to her, and left the balcony, closing its doors behind himself.

That day, he ignored the knight's yells, her bargains, her threats. And when she came back the next morning from a camp she'd made nearby, Derek tried to pay her no mind. He tried not to ask her how his family was, to not sympathize with her tale of her family's lands being taken over by the Hales, to being innocent but shamed by her family name and taking up the mantle of a knight to redeem it. He failed.

And weeks later, Allison asked, "May I come up?"

Derek had only one answer. He had grown tired of being wary, tired of not being able to trust both himself and her, and more than a little bit in love. And, he told himself, allowing her into his tower didn't mean he'd come back home.

Derek threw down a key, and returned Allison's smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Complete; no sequel planned.


End file.
